(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . CDFW releases 23 million fall-run Chinook salmon as fishing closure continues on ocean, rivers [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-08-24 As the salmon fishing closure continues on California’s ocean waters and rivers, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) announced yesterday that it has completed the release of approximately 23 million juvenile fall-run Chinook salmon raised at its four Central Valley anadromous fish hatcheries. These facilities include the Feather River Fish Hatchery, the Nimbus Fish Hatchery on the American River, the Mokelumne River Fish Hatchery and the Merced River Hatchery. The Department said the 23 million salmon raised and released by CDFW in 2023 is 15 percent increase over the roughly 20 million fall-run Chinook salmon raised and released in 2022. 10.4 million of these fish are from the Feather River Hatchery, 5.6 million are from Nimbus Fish Hatchery and 7.0 million are from the Mokelumne River Fish Hatchery. “This year’s production goals were increased as a coordinated effort among state and federal partnering agencies to help fall-run Chinook salmon overcome impacts from an extended drought that increased water temperatures and decreased water flow throughout the Central Valley during critical salmon spawning and rearing periods,” the CDFW stated. “Drought conditions coupled with Thiamine Deficiency Complex, a vitamin deficiency that impacts reproduction, have reduced in-river spawning success the past several years. Beyond the hatchery production increase, CDFW said it “carried out several new, innovative and experimental release strategies to take advantage of some of the best in-river flows and water conditions in years and to increase overall survival.” For the first time since 2020, CDFW conducted in-river salmon releases within the Feather River and the American River to take advantage of the increased water flows associated with winter storms that lingered into the spring. “These flows increased available rearing habitat and provided for increased survival while migrating toward the ocean,” the CDFW said. “Salmon smolts outfitted with acoustic tags were released with larger groups in their natal rivers to allow CDFW to monitor and track their downstream migration to the ocean.” The Department said that preliminary results suggest “high survival for groups of hatchery-raised fish released into the river systems in 2023.” Watch the May 16, 2023, release of fall-run Chinook salmon smolts into the American River (Video)(opens in new tab). “The more than one million salmon fry released into the American River in February represented CDFW’s initial effort with ‘Parentage Based Tagging’ or PBT. These juvenile salmon don’t carry physical markings or tags, but their genetic signatures have been recorded and stored for future analysis to evaluate the overall success of the fry release,” the CDFW noted. The Feather River Fish Hatchery released smaller juvenile fall-run Chinook salmon earlier in the spring than the typical smolt releases to diversify “hatchery release strategies as well as the timing and size of hatchery-raised fish entering into the bay and marine environments,” the Department added. CDFW said it also increased the number of release sites and strategies used within San Francisco and San Pablo bays. These included new release locations at: the Estuary and Ocean Science Center in partnership with San Francisco State University; Point San Quentin, in partnership with the Marin Rod and Gun Club; and Brickyard Cove in Richmond in partnership with the City of Richmond and the Golden Gate Salmon Association. “At these locations, smolts were released at night on strong outgoing tides to reduce bird predation and encourage seaward migration,” the CDFW said. In addition, 162,000 Central Valley salmon were released into the ocean in Monterey Harbor, 160,000 into Santa Cruz Harbor and 752,000 into Pillar Point Harbor in Half Moon Bay. 25 percent of all fall-run Chinook salmon raised and released by CDFW’s Central Valley anadromous fish hatcheries, with the exception of PBT release groups in the American River, carry coded-wire tags (CWT). These tags have information on their origin and the fish have a clipped adipose fin to indicate their hatchery origin, according to the CDFW “Both CWT and PBT tagged fish will provide important scientific data that will inform future management decisions and hatchery operations,” the agency noted. Fall-run Chinook salmon from the Sacramento River are the driver of West Coast salmon fisheries. The Sacramento and Klamath River systems support the bulk of California’s commercial and recreational salmon fishing season. The Department added that fishing seasons will be “reevaluated” in 2024. However, in an apparent effort to avoid discussing the key roles that the state and federal agencies played in the poor water and fishery management that led to the salmon collapse that made ocean and river fishing closures necessary this year, the CDFW cited only “drought” and “Thiamine Deficiency Completion” as causes of the collapse. While both factors certainly factored in the declines, anglers, environmentalists and salmon advocates argue it was the failure of the state and federal governments to preserve a cold water pool in upstream Central Valley reservoirs so that cooler water could be released when needed most by spawning salmon during a drought that greatly exacerbated an already bad situation. As a result, a number of fish died before spawning in the low, warm water conditions. In addition, the overharvest of salmon in ocean fisheries two years in a row because of a badly flawed model for forecasting ocean salmon abundance used by the National Marine Fisheries Service and Pacific Fishery Management Council also played a role in the collapse. Salmon advocates also point out that the dire situation of Sacramento and Klamath/Trinity River fall-run Chinook salmon, as well as imperiled spring-run and winter-run Chinook on the Sacramento, will get even worse if the Delta Tunnel and Sites Reservoir projects and the Big Ag-promoted voluntary agreements are pushed through by the Gavin Newsom administration. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/24/2189338/-CDFW-Completes-Release-of-23-Million-Fall-Run-Chinook-Salmon Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/